Not just any astronauts, either. I shook hands with Lt. Gen. Tom Stafford and Capt. Eugene “Gene” Cernan of Apollo X. Cernan later commanded Apollo XVII and was the last man to make footprints on the moon. He’s ridden the Saturn V twice. Flown to the moon twice.

Want to look at two of the fastest men alive? Apollo X set the record, 24,791 mph, on the return flight from the moon.

Cernan, Left and Stafford, Right

I told them it was a deep honor for me to meet them, and thanked them for what they did for mankind, the country – and me, since I grew up watching their exploits. Cernan remarked that he’s amazed that there’s a whole generation of adults in their 30’s and 40’s who were born after Neil set foot on the moon. When some younger folks tell him they watched him on the moon he thinks, “Yeah, maybe if your dad held you up to the TV screen as a baby.”

Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

I remember the grief Nixon got for building a fire and turning up the air conditioning in the summer. Why do I suspect that He won’t get any such razzing?

Not wanting Obama’s presidency to be the funniest thing in the news, the City of Berkeley pipes up with this.

Berkeley’s public library will face a showdown with the city’s Peace and Justice Commission tonight over whether a service contract for the book check-out system violates the city’s nuclear-free ordinance.

People…. Get mad,,,,,, get angry,,,, get involved!!! They survival of this country may depend on citizen action to regain control of our out-of-control government!!!! I’m not counting on President Obama to solve our problems. He was the third highest recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the last 10 years behind Chris Dodd(D) and John Kerry(D), and he was only in the senate for 4 years. Fannie and Freddie have received many billions of dollars of “bail-out” money and are wanting/needing more.

Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus.

On Sunday night, while doing my cardio, I caught what appeared to be rebroadcast of an episode of Larry King LIve. King asked The View’s Joy Behar why comedians didn’t make fun of the new president. The comedienne replied that this prez was just too perfect.*

I keep telling you, this is going to be the funniest administration ever. To help keep track, I’m adding a new tag to the blog: Obamedy. It’s the first item in the new “Tag Faves” box over there on the right, so you’ll always be up to date on the latest D.C. Knee Slapper.

I have to admit that so far the Obama presidency is working out better than I hoped: I’m spending a lot of time in hysterics. If you can listen to this “poetry” without laughing out loud, check your pulse.

This morning on KSFO Officer Vic had a version of the poem read by the Text To Speech robots he sometimes uses in commercials. I was laughing so hard it was difficult to drive. If he posts it on line I will link it here.

24 January, 2009

The creationists in Texas had a Plan B. We already know how it works in the press: If someone says something stupid, dishonest, or both the “R” is always by their name. “D” only shows up for good things. But, sheesh. These dishonest, idiotic Texas Republicans need to be taken to the wood shed.For clarity, I have put every bald-faced lie in bold type.

“There are many, many gaps that don’t link species changing and evolving into another species, so we want our students to get all of the science, and we want them to have great, open discussions and learning to respect each other’s opinions,” said Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands, a former science teacher.
She scoffed at claims that social conservatives on the 15-member board were just trying to find another way to expose students to creationism — the belief that life, Earth and the universe were created by a supreme being.
“This isn’t about religion. I don’t know how many times we have to say it before people accept it,” she said. “It’s about science. We want to stick to the science.”
Also added to the proposed standards by board Chairman Don McLeroy, R-Bryan, is an amendment that directs science teachers and students to “describe the sufficiency or insufficiency of common ancestry to explain the sudden appearance, stasis and sequential nature of groups in the fossil record.”

So evolution may be OK, but common ancestry is dubious? Are they kidding? That’s like saying that gravity may be a valid theory, but things don’t fall down.

This is about religion, period. There is absolutely no science being done anywhere which doesn’t comport with evolution, which is just another name for common ancestry. These so-called Christians better bone up on the Ten Commandments – especially that fine print about “bearing false witness”.

The professional liars at the so-called Discovery Institute are rubbing their hands with glee:

“We view this as one step back, two steps forward,” said John West, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a conservative think-tank based in Seattle that disputes the theory of evolution. “The board unfortunately failed to reinstate specific language requiring coverage of strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories. But, in the area of evolution, it significantly improved the standards by adopting a series of amendments to make sure that students have to analyze and evaluate the major parts of evolutionary theory.”